Coupled self-charging and self-propulsion of evaporating sessile droplets
Abstract
Evaporating sessile water droplets universally deposit surface charges while simultaneously becoming self-charged---a phenomenon that remains under-appreciated despite its potentially important consequences. Here, we investigate one such consequence: droplet self-propulsion driven by self-charging. This self-propulsion arises spontaneously in the absence of external stimuli and produces self-avoiding trajectories that can displace droplets by many times their own diameter. Our results have important practical implications for processes requiring spatial precision, such as inkjet printing. The coupling between self-charging and self-propulsion produces mosaic surface charge patterns characterized by alternating polarities, which we explain with a physical model based on properties of the electric double layer.
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BibTeX
@misc{singh2026coupled,
title = {{Coupled self-charging and self-propulsion of evaporating sessile droplets}},
author = {Nitish Singh and Aaron D. Ratschow and Syed N. R. Kazmi and Dan Daniel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.06120},
eprint = {2609.06120},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06120},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Coupled self-charging and self-propulsion of evaporating sessile droplets
AU - Nitish Singh
AU - Aaron D. Ratschow
AU - Syed N. R. Kazmi
AU - Dan Daniel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.06120
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06120
AB - Evaporating sessile water droplets universally deposit surface charges while simultaneously becoming self-charged---a phenomenon that remains under-appreciated despite its potentially important consequences. Here, we investigate one such consequence: droplet self-propulsion driven by self-charging. This self-propulsion arises spontaneously in the absence of external stimuli and produces self-avoiding trajectories that can displace droplets by many times their own diameter. Our results have important practical implications for processes requiring spatial precision, such as inkjet printing. The coupling between self-charging and self-propulsion produces mosaic surface charge patterns characterized by alternating polarities, which we explain with a physical model based on properties of the electric double layer.
ER -